Railway boxcar having end doors



June 23, 1970 BRADFORD ET AL 3,516,366

RAILWAY BOXCAR HAVING END DOORS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 50, 1967 O UK? in? FIG. I.

FIG. 2.

INVENTORS.

DUDLEY M. BRADFORD AURION M. PROCTOR JW L. 5

ATTORNEY June 23, 1970 D. M. BRADFORD ET AL 3,515,366

' RAILWAY BOXCAR HAVING END DOORS Filed Aug. 50, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 38 FIG. 3.

June 23, 1970 D. MJBRADFQRD ET AL 3,516,366

RAILWAY BOXCAR HAVING END moons 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. 30, 1967 2 8 w A: w r w qr, 4 w i 1 17 6 N "K 6 WM w 8 p w 9 /M m (5 5 w x i n 6 g I\ 5/ w i a n m F b V/ w w 5 FIG. 4.

June 23, 1970 BRADFORD ET AL 3,516,366

RAILWAY BOXCAR HAVING END DOORS FIG. 9.

FIG- 7. /00 /02 FIG. 8.

3,516,366 RAILWAY BOXCAR HAVING END DOORS Dudley M. Bradford, Ballwin, Mo., and Auriou M. lroctor, Blauvelt, N .Y., assiguors to ACF Industries, Incorporated, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Aug. 30, 1967, Ser. No. 664,495 Int. Cl. B61d 17/06, 19/00 US. Cl. 10537 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A railway boxcar, particularly of the type having a long travel cushion and having the usual side doors, is provided with end doors which open upwardly and down wardly so that the lower end door forms a loading platform. The lower doors, when dropped, rest on the end sills or have pivoted braces or legs adapted to extend downward to support the lower doors in their horizontal position. Mechanical drive means for easily raising the doors are provided, and the hinges of the lower doors may have springs or torsion bars for the same purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Railway boxcars are commonly loaded and unloaded by lift trucks which are driven into the car from a platform at floor level with the car. Boxcars generally have center doors. Where loads for several destinations are in a single car, and particularly where partitions are placed between the several loads, the car must go to its destinations so that the loads near the center doors are unloaded before loads in other parts of the car. It is obvious that inconvenience and extra expense may result from the necessity of loading and unloading in a generally inverse order. Also, through narrow side doors it is ditficult to move oversized loads, such as lumber or plywood, particularly when packed in bundles, so that boards, which mav be 16 feet or longer, may have to be handled piece by piece. For other apparent reasons, additional access to the car may facilitate and accelerate loading and unloading. Accordingly, it has been proposed to provide side doors along the entire length of a car, but cars of this type are more costly and present constructional problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention increases access to the car in a constructionally feasible and economic manner by providing the car with end doors which may be lowered to form end loading platforms for the car. The lower door hinges, in one embodiment, have springs biased to aid in lifting the doors. In another embodiment, the door hinges are mechanically coupled by gearing, or a sprocket wheel and chain drive, for simultaneous operation. The hinges at both sides of the car are connected to heads or fittings adapted to receive a crow bar or other tool for turning the hinges. The lower door is adapted to be supported by the end sill, but may also have a pair of foldable legs or braces for supporting it in its lowered position. The invention is particularly applicable to cars having longtravel cushioned underframes, wherein the distance between the end walls of coupled cars is great enough to provide adequate access for end loading and unloading of the coupled cars. The inner side of the lower door may be provided with rollers, which are preferably retractable, where the floor of the car has rollers.

.51 aired States Patent ()fli Patented June 23, 1970 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The invention is disclosed in the following description and the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of two end door boxcars at a loading platform with the end doors shown in open position.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the end of a boxcar being loaded by a lift truck.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a boxcar showing the end doors thereof in closed position.

' FIG. 3A is a partial perspective view of a boxcar show- 1ng the end doors thereof in a partially opened position.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of modified means for opening and closing the end doors.

FIGS. 5 to 9 are schematic diagrams illustrating modified embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of a locking device for the end doors.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The several figures of the drawing show various features which may be incorporated in embodiments of the invention other than those in which they are shown.

FIG. 1 shows two boxcars 10, 12 which may be coupled together. The cars have upper and lower hinged doors l4, 16. A bridge plate 18 rests on the lower doors l6 and a platform 20. A fork lift truck 22 may travel from platform 20 over bridge plate 18 and deposit its load on the rollers 24, on the doors 16 and on the floor of the car. Rollers 24 are preferred only where the floor of the car itself has rollers. It is desirable to mount the rollers on a retractable frame, as in Pat. No. 3,243,029 for example, so that the rollers will not come into contact with the lading when doors 16 are closed. The load may then be pushed into the car. Where the car has no floor or door rollers, the lift truck may travel into the car and place the load where required. If necessary, additional bridge plates may be placed over the opening between doors 16 and the floors of the cars. The cars have reinforced corner posts 27 to which the end doors I4, 16 are secured in their closed position.

Where the car is to be loaded from a siding without a platform at floor level, the procedure is similar in that the lift truck on the siding elevates the load 26 and places it on the platform formed by door 16. The load 26 is then pushed into the car on rollers 24. The upper door 14 has hinges 28, 30. The lower doors 16 have similar hinges 34, 35, preferably fixed to the end sills of the car, and including torsion bars 38 for facilitating lifting of the lower doors. A pair of braces or legs 40, 41 are pivotally connected to the outer side of door 16 and are adapted to be turned downwardly, as shown in FIG. 3 to engage the flanges 42 extending outwardly from the bottom of the sliding sill 44, as shown in FIG. 8. Latching means 46 of any suitable type is adapted to hold braces 40, 41 in their retracted position, and both the upper and lower doors have suitable locking means 48, 50, shown in FIG. 10. The cars are also equipped with ladders, platforms, and other accessories as required but which are not elements of the present invention.

The car can be very conveniently loaded from a truck, or unloaded into a truck, by backing the truck up to the car, with the tail-gate of the truck at about the same level and adjacent to the lowered end door 16 of the car. The load can then be moved between the car and the truck 'with the minimum effort.

Cars having a cushion travel of twenty inches, when coupled, may provide a space of about seven feet between their ends. The lower doors would then have to be no more than 3 /2 feet wide to fit without overlapping. The upper and lower doors may have the same or different heights. Where the end doors are to be used while cars are coupled together, the spacing between the coupled cars might be less than the combined heights of their two lower doors or upper doors. In that case some overlapping of the doors may be necessary, and various stratagems may be adopted. In FIG. 5 the upper doors 14a are shown schematically as being about twice as high as lower doors 16a. In their open positions, shown by dashed lines, upper doors 14a overlap, while lower doors 16a are short enough to fit between the cars without overlapping.

In FIG. 6 the upper door 14b is hinged at 52 and any suitable means is provided for opening and holding door 14b in the position shown in dashed lines. The lower door 16b opens to the dashed line position. The upper doors of FIGS. 5 and 6 can, of course, be supported in their raised position by any suitable means known in connection with overhead doors.

FIG. 4 schematically shows another means for opening and closing the end doors. The car is provided with side sills 53, 54 a fixed center sill 55, and connecting end sills 57, 59. The hinges for the upper door include rod 56 mounted in bearings 58, 60. Hinges 62, 64 are fastened to the upper door (not shown) and are welded to rod 56. A bevel gear 66 is fixed to rod 56. Similar elements 68-74 are provided for the lower door. Hinge rod 68 is supported on end sills 57, 59 and extends through the sides 76 and 78 of the car and terminates in heads 80, 82 adapted to receive a crowbar or the like for turning rod 68. Gears 66 and 74 engage similar gears 84, 86 fixed to rod 88. Thus the hinges turn together in opposite directions when opening and closing and therefore the upper and lower doors counterbalance each other. If the two doors are of much different sizes the smaller door may be weighted to counterbalance the other. The doors may be opened and closed from either side of the car by a man on the ground or platform 20. Since the doors turn only about 90 degrees, the several bevel gears may be sectors of about 130 degrees instead of full 360 degree gears. As an alternative to the gearing shown in FIG. 4, sprocket wheels 90, 92 may be mounted on shafts or rods 56 and 68, and interconnected by chain 94, as shown in FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 shows schematically the lower door supported in a manner alternative to that of FIG. 8. Lower door 160 has a pair of pivoted legs 96, 98 terminating in claws 100, 102 adapted to span the rails 103, 104. When folded, legs '96 and 98 are fastened to door 16C by any suitable latching or holding device (not shown).

'Door locking means 48 or 50, shown schematically in FIG. 10, includes a handle 110, outside the end door 14 or 16, and fixed to a pin 112 pivotally mounted in the door. Pin 112 is fixed to a crank 114, to which rod 115 and 116 are connected, so that the rods move inwardly or outwardly when handle 110 is turned. Rods 115 and 116 are of course mounted within and supported in a nearly horizontal position by the door, and when extended are adapted to engage the corner posts 27 and prevent opening of the door with which the rods are associated.

The essentials of the invention have been illustrated and described without the encumbrance of many accessories and details which would be evident to those skilled in the art. Variations of the several embodiments herein disclosed will be apparent, and hence the invention should not be construed as limited to the disclosed structure.

What is claimed is:

1. A railway boxcar having a body having side doors; an underframe supporting said body; wheeled trucks supporting said underframe; and couplers extending beyond the ends of said body, characterized in that each end of the body comprises a pair of doors including a lower door having a transverse horizontal hinge at the floor of the car for enabling said lower door to swing downwardly approximately into the plane of the floor of the car, and an upper door horizontally hinged along the top thereof for enabling said door to swing upwardly, the area of a pair of end doors being practically the entire area of one end of the body; supporting means for each lower door comprising a pair of legs pivotally connected at one end to the outside of the lower door, said car including a sliding center sill having laterally extending flanges, said legs being so positioned and having such a length as to rest on said flanges of the center sill when the lower door is in a horizontal position; and means for opening or closing the doors at each end, whereby the lower door when open forms a platform for end loading or unloading of the car.

2. A railway boxcar having an underframe including a pair of side sills and end sills; a floor over the underframe; a pair of sides extending upwardly from the floor; an end corner post adjacent each end of each side; a center sill structure extending outwardly from each end of the car; a lower end door at each end of the car extending between said sides; means on the end sills hinging the lower edge of each lower end door for swinging movement about a generally horizontal axis closely adjacent the center sill structure between open and closed positions, said end doors in open position extending outwardly from the adjacent end of the car over the adjacent center sill structure and lying in a generally horizontal plane to form a continuation of the floor of the boxcar whereby lading and the like may be moved thereover; means to support the end door in open position; means to secure the end door to the adjacent end corner posts in said closed position; and an upper door at each end hinged along its upper edge to swing upwardly to an open position, said upper doors in a closed position forming with the lower doors substantially the entire ends of the railway boxcar.

3. A railway boxcar having an underframe including a pair of side sills and connecting end sills, a floor over the underframe, a pair of sides extending upwardly from the floor, an end corner post adjacent each end of each side, a center sill structure extending outwardly from each end of the car, an end door extending between said sides, means on the adjacent end sill hinging the lower end of said end door for swinging movement about a generally horizontal axis closely adjacent the center sill structure between open and closed positions, said end door in open position extending outwardly from the adjacent end of the car over the adjacent center sill structure and lying in a generally horizontal plane to form a continuation of the floor of the boxcar whereby lading and the like may be moved thereover, means to support the end door in open position, and means to secure the end door to the adjacent end corner posts in said closed position.

4. A railway boxcar as set forth in claim 3 wherein an upper door is hinged along its upper edge adjacent the top of the railway boxcar and is adapted to swing upwardly to an open position, said upper door including a pair of hinged door portions foldable against each other in said open position, said upper door in a closed position forming with the lower door substantially the entire end of the railway boxcar.

S. A pair of railway boxcars according to claim 3, wherein each end door in open position extends about half the distance between the ends of the pair of boxcars when they are coupled together, whereby adjacent end doors of the coupled boxcars form a continuation of the floors of said cars to provide a continuous lading support bridge between adjacent boxcars.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,100,634 4/1955 France.

233,629 5/1954 Germany.

ARTHUR L. LaPOINT, Primary Examiner R. A. BERTSCH, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 105-366, 404 

